A three-member probe body has been formed to investigate allegations brought against Khulna (GRP) railway policemen of gang-raping a woman at the station.
The committee was formed at the instructions of Pakshi railway District Police Superintendent Mohammad Nazrul Islam on Monday (Aug 5).
The committee is headed by Assistant Superintendent of Kushtia Firoz Ahmed. The other members of the probe body are GIO-1 of Kushtia Inspector SM Kamal Hossain and Darshana railway immigration camp Inspector Md Baharul Islam.
The committee has been asked to submit its report along with recommendations within seven days.
The official order stated that a petition had been filed with the Khulna additional chief judicial magistrate court over allegations that a woman had been raped and tortured in custody by around five to six policemen at the Khulna railway police station.
The court recorded the victim’s testimony and sent her to Khulna Medical College Hospital for medical examinations on Monday afternoon.
After the medical examinations concluded, the victim was sent back to court.
Resident Medical Officer of Khulna Medical Officer Dr Anjan Kumar Chakraborty said that the victim’s medical examination had been conducted at the hospital’s forensic department and nothing could be said until receiving the reports.
The victim’s sister claimed that Khulna GRP station officer-in-charge Osman Gani Pathan had issued threats to them in front of the One-Stop Crisis Centre of KMCH after they refused to settle the matter out of court in exchange for Tk 0.15 million.
She demanded punishment of all policemen, including the OC, involved in arresting and raping her sister in police custody in a false Phensedyl peddling case.
Denying the allegations of rape, OC of Khulna GRP station Osman Gani Pathan said that the victim was making false allegations in court to escape conviction after being arrested with five bottles of Phensedyl on Aug 2.
It has been found that OC Osman Gani Pathan, Sub-inspectors Goutom Kumar Pal and Nazmul Hasan, Constables Mizan, Harun, Mofiz, Abdul Kuddus, Alauddin, Kajol and others were present at the Khulna GRP station on the night of Aug 2.
Victim’s brother-in-law said that the policemen arrested the victim for the suspected theft of a mobile at the railway station after she arrived there from Jashore on Aug 2.
The OC later called him over and demanded Tk 0.1 million for her release and threatened to implicate her in drug peddling case unless the money was paid, he said.
According to him, after he returned home without paying the money, the victim was raped by the policemen at the station at night.
When she was produced at a senior judicial magistrate court in Khulna in a false drug peddling case on Aug 3, she testified that she had been raped the night before, he said.